Author: Claude Boucher
Publisher: Anchor Books
ISBN: 9780957050808
Category : Chewa
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
When Animals Sing and Spirits Dance is an introduction to the diversity and drama that is the gule wamkulu, the 'great dance, ' of the Chewa people of Malawi. Covering 200 characters bedecked in mask and costume or woven structure, the book reveals not only the physical variety of the characters but also analyzes their songs, dances, and often codified messages that are delivered through word and action. It is through the dancers of the gule wamkulu that the ancestors communicate with the living and give instructions on how to abide by the code of moral conduct, the mwambo. It is also through the great dance that we can glean intimate insight into the values and worldview of the Chewa. Illustrated throughout with color photographs and original artwork, When Animals Sing and Spirits Dance is a lively interpretation of the great dance, told very much in the voice of the Chewa themselves. The songs are interpreted in both Chichewa and English, with appropriate recognition that direct representation is often impossible. The gule wamkulu was declared a masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2005. This book is a worthy entrée to the majesty, spectacle, and spirituality that is the great dance.
Author: 'H' Patten
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100054642X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 316
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Book Description
This book explores the genealogy of Jamaican dancehall while questioning whether dancehall has a spiritual underscoring, foregrounding dance, and cultural expression. This study identifies the performance and performative (behavioural actions) that may be considered as representing spiritual ritual practices within the reggae/dancehall dance phenomenon. It does so by juxtaposing reggae/dancehall against Jamaican African/neo-African spiritual practices such as Jonkonnu masquerade, Revivalism and Kumina, alongside Christianity and post-modern holistic spiritual approaches. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars in performance studies, popular culture, music, theology, cultural studies, Jamaican/Caribbean culture, and dance specialists.
Author: Robert Beaton
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9996025470
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 331
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Book Description
This volume is about effective discipleship. The author discusses how it is possible to transform worldview and thus change behaviour (practice) in the area of African traditional religious charm- dependency and related witchcraft practices in the church. He lays foundations for an appropriate approach for renewal, one which takes into consideration cultural sensitivity, Biblical fidelity and pedagogic efficacy. Specific Biblical passages are studied with a view to both theological significance and practically applicable significance for the context, and suggestions are made regarding how to best communicate these Biblical truths effectively in situ. This material provides a malleable resource for church leaders, theological educators and missionaries, to use, develop or modify, according to their own particular didactic needs and specific ATR challenges to Christian discipleship.
Author: Walter E. A. Van Beek
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1847013430
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 416
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Book Description
Explores the dynamics of African masquerades and mask performances on the continent, linking performative expressions to societal characteristics. What is the meaning of masks and masquerades in African traditions and how can we understand their role in rituals and performances? Why do we find masks in some African regions and not in others, and what does this 'mask habitat' say about the general dynamics of masquerades in Africa? Though masks are among the most famous art icons of Africa, exploration of their uses and the way in which they articulate social characteristics of African societies has been underexamined. This book takes an anthropological perspective on the phenomenon of masquerades on the African continent to show how mask rituals are an integral part of African indigenous religions and societies, and are informed by and linked to specific types of social and ecological conditions. Having established the commonalities of mask rituals and a mask typology, the authors look at the varieties of mask performances and the types of rituals in which masks function in rites of passage and in rituals of gender, power, and identity. The following chapters focus on different types of rituals featuring masks, from initiation and death ceremonies to secrecy, kingship, law and war. With its broad examination of the use of masks on the continent, from Angola to Burkina Faso, Cameroon, DRC, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, this well illustrated book will stand as an authoritative study of the use of masks, of interest not only to those in African Studies but to anthropologists and ethnographers worldwide.
Author: Li Ju-chen
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 316
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Book Description
Author: Robin Ridington
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1496208528
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 480
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Book Description
When You Sing It Now, Just Like New is a collection of essays about stories: about hearing, sharing, and recording them, and sometimes even becoming characters in them. These essays, which contextualize stories within anthropology, flow from Robin Ridington and Jillian Ridington's decades of work with the Athapaskan-speaking Dane-zaa people, who live in Canada's Peace River area. The essays in part 1 feature the Ridingtons' audio work as well as Jillian's reflections on her relationships with Dane-zaa women. The authors use a narrative style to lead the reader to an understanding of First Nations' oral and written traditions. The essays in parts 2 and 3 are more scholarly and comparative and draw on ethnographic experience. They speak to one or more theoretical issues and discuss First Nations traditions beyond the Dane-zaa, but always from within the context of shared ethnographic authority. Students of anthropology, folklore, and Native studies can hear samples of audio compositions from the Dane-zaa archive by downloading audio files from the University of Nebraska Press Web site.
Author: Sharman Apt Russell
Publisher: Pantheon
ISBN: 1524747246
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 337
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Book Description
An important, hopeful book that looks at the urgent problem of childhood malnutrition worldwide and the revolutionary progress being made to end it. A healthy Earth requires healthy children. Yet nearly one-fourth of the world's children are stunted physically and mentally due to a lack of food or nutrients. These children do not die but endure a lifetime of diminished potential. During the past thirty years, says Sharman Russell, we have seen a revolution in how we treat these sick children and in how--with a new understanding of the human body and approach to nutrition, and new ways to reach out to hungry mothers and babies--we have gone from unwittingly killing severely malnourished children to bringing them back to health through the "miracle" of ready-to-eat therapeutic food. Intertwined with stories of scientists and nutrition experts on the front lines of finding ways to end malnutrition for good, Russell writes of her travels to Malawi, one of the poorest and least-developed countries in the world and also the site of pathbreaking, cutting-edge research into childhood malnutrition. (Eighty percent of Malawians are farmers subsisting on less than an acre of land and coping with erratic weather patterns due to global warming; fifty percent live below the poverty line; and forty-two percent of Malawi's children are affected by a lack of food or nutrients.) As she writes of her personal exploration of new friendships and insights in a country known as "the warm heart of Africa," Russell describes the programs that are working best to reduce childhood stunting and explores how malnutrition in children is connected to climate change, how vitamins and minerals are preventing these harmful effects, why the empowerment of women is the single most effective factor in eliminating childhood malnutrition, and what the costs of ending childhood malnutrition are. Sharman Russell, much-admired writer of luminous prose and humane heart, whose writing has been called, "elegant" (The Economist) and "extraordinarily well-crafted, far-reaching, and heart-wrenching" (Booklist), winner of the John Burroughs Medal for distinguished natural history writing, has written an illuminating, inspiring book that makes clear the promise of what is today, gratefully, within our grasp.
Author: Steven Pass
Publisher: Digital on Demand
ISBN: 186804498X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 554
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Book Description
Christianity in Eurafrica is an impressive book, meticulously researched and well written by a professional scholar. The first chapter includes some valuable historiographical guidelines for writing and understanding the History of the Church. In its first part, the book traces the history of the Church in the Middle East and Europe, explaining the roots of theological diversity to this day. In the second part, the author narrates how the Faith moved south, took root in African soil and grew independently. Many pictures and illustrations serve to further enliven the account. Steven Paas, taught Theology in Malawi for many years. He writes from a deep knowledge of and love for the Lord’s Church, especially in Africa and Europe. This textbook on the history of Christianity in two continents fits with the curricula of institutions of theological training in Africa and the West. The content is especially aimed at students who prepare for the ministry and for Christian education. The book is, however, also invaluable for all scholars of the History of Christianity.
Author: Philip Kreager
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1785336053
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 358
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Book Description
In the last forty years anthropologists have made major contributions to understanding the heterogeneity of reproductive trends and processes underlying them. Fertility transition, rather than the story of the triumphant spread of Western birth control rationality, reveals a diversity of reproductive means and ends continuing before, during, and after transition. This collection brings together anthropological case studies, placing them in a comparative framework of compositional demography and conjunctural action. The volume addresses major issues of inequality and distribution which shape population and social structures, and in which fertility trends and the formation and size of families are not decided solely or primarily by reproduction.
Author: Kondwani Bell Munthali
Publisher: Kuperard
ISBN: 1787029395
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 168
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Book Description
Nicknamed "The Warm Heart of Africa," "Land of the Lake," and "The Land of Smiling Faces," this small, landlocked country in southeast Africa offers travelers a true African experience. Within a single day, visitors can go on safari, enjoy sprawling tea gardens, and watch the sun sets over Lake Malawi, the third-largest lake in Africa and home to many rare species of fish. The country has nine unique national parks and wildlife reserves and has been home to many diverse African cultures, from the indigenous hunter-gathers to the incoming iron-working Bantu settlers. Dress, dance, masks, language, and traditional festivals all reflect waves of migrating tribes—those fleeing Shaka Zulu in the south, Swahili Arab slave traders in the east, and Bantu from Central Africa. Other cultural influences came through the slave trade routes, contact with Portuguese and Indian traders, and English missionaries who introduced Victorian-era buildings. This historic blend has produced a people who are strong, good-humored, conservative, traditional, yet adaptable, creative, loyal, and hard-working.
